Exhibit to show village in Israel

FREEHOLD - The Court Street School Education Community Center will present "Pictures from a New World: An African American Village in Israel," Feb. 17-18 from 2-5 p.m. Tickets are $20 for adults and $5 for children under 12. For tickets to the exhibition, call (732) 303-8724.

The exhibition, "Pictures from a New World: An African American Village in Israel," was made in the African Hebrew Israelite communities of Dimona and Arad Israel.

The community was established more than 35 years ago by a group of African Americans from the Chicago area. They left the United States in 1967, lived in Liberia for more than two years, and settled in Israel's Negev desert. The images in this portfolio describe various aspects of daily life in the community: portraits, business, education, architecture, healthcare, music and play.

The exhibiting artist Wendell A. White is currently professor of art at The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey.

He received various awards and fellowships including the 1995 New Jersey Council for the Arts Fellowship, the 2003 John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship in photography, and the 2005 Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts grant to support the School for the Colored project.

This project is an extension of White's earlier works that address the historical traditions of African American communities including "Small Town, Black Lives: African American Communities in Southern New Jersey" and "Schools for the Colored: Up-South, Between the Mississippi River and the Atlantic Ocean." The photographs are a continuation of his involvement with the various iterations of the concept of community and identity for the African American.